The Mysterious Affair at NYC
by Kelip-Kelip
Summary: That night the "city that never sleeps" was just...well...sleeping. Or was it? The turtles find themsleves entangled in a murder mystery that involves the biggest leaders in the world! Can you guess the whodunnit before it's too late?
1. A clumsy thief

**_Hi everyone! Well this is my first fanfic so I'm very excited and a little nervous too, but I have been enjoying the TMNT fics so much that I decided to write my own! I hope you enjoy it, please R&R, it would be greatly appreciated! :)_**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own the turtles, this is all for fun, not money, and yaddi yaddi yadda, and shame on anyone who tries to sue me... I have no money, so it wouldn't even be profitable. This disclaimer applies for the rest of the chapters!**

**ENJOY!**

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**The Mysterious Affair at NY**

**Chapter 1: ****A clumsy thief**

The city that never sleeps was unusually calm that night. You could hardly see anyone on the streets, except for the occasional yellow cabs that even on a night like this could not be missing from the landscape of what was New York. It was nearly two o'clock in the morning, and the chilly October night had driven all of the inhabitants of Manhattan indoors. No one was on the streets. No one, except for four shadows that leapt from rooftop to rooftop, unbothered by the cold blows of air that every so often tickled their necks. They were, after all, cold-blooded creatures.

Our beloved heroes were out, as usual, "saving the weak, and standing up for justice", as Mikey would so eloquently put it, often earning a head slap from one of his brothers (usually Raph, unless he was out of smacking-distance). Tonight, however, seemed to be a rather slow one, as even the relentless Purple Dragons were taking the night off.

" 'Crime never sleeps' my ass" grunted Raphael, who was all the more irritated since he was looking forward to bashing in some heads tonight, an activity that he hadn't had a chance to enjoy for almost a week now, since Casey came down with a cold that kept him in bed. Not that Raph couldn't go out alone, but his human friend had decided that the best way to recover from a simple flu was to get hammered every night, as that was the only thing he could do to combat boredom while staying in bed, something that April insisted upon. However, Casey's first rule of getting drunk, according to his Twenty Rules on Alcohol, stated that "Thou shall get inebriated in company, if at all possible". Hence, Raph had spent the past five nights with Casey, four of which he could barely remember. Tonight however, Raphael finally decided that he needed to take a break from the constant hangover and the headaches, as he suspected that he was getting dangerously close to alcohol intoxication.

"Well, I suppose we should be glad that it's quiet night and no one is in need of a rescue…" Michelangelo muttered, with a hint of disappointment discernible from his voice. They had reached the West side of Manhattan, and could now see the water from the corner of 42nd and First.

"Guys, it's not always about the fight, we must also train to develop our agility, speed, and stealth, and this is a perfectly good night to be practicing all that! Master Splinter always says…"

"Guys, I think there's at least one bad guy who decided not to take the night off!" Don interrupted Leo's sermon, as he gestured for the others to come to the other side of the roof. Leo seemed a bit resentful about being cut off, but he couldn't hide the smile that was playing at the edge of his lips. After all, they needed to practice their fighting techniques as well.

He walked over to the side of the roof where Raph and Mikey were looking intently in the direction where Don was pointing. "Isn't that… the United Nations building?" asked Leo surprised.

"Mmhmmm…" nodded Don, as he was staring intently at one window on the third floor, through which the turtles could see a small ray of light cut through the darkness of the room. "Somebody is in there with a flashlight" he added.

"Dudes this is so cool! Do you realize that if we catch this guy, we could be International Superheroes who saved the world from some horrible fate? I bet somebody is secretly plotting to kill the president of a very, very important country… or trying to destroy the plans for world peace…or…or…"

"OR somebody could just be working late" interrupted Leonardo, cutting Mikey's wild ideas off.

"I don't know Leo" Don argued, "he is clearly using a flashlight. And it doesn't look like there's a blackout or anything in the neighbourhood…" Don was interrupted by a loud CRUSH coming from the room they were observing. The sound did not only startle the turtles, but apparently the man inside as well, who in his surprise dropped the flashlight from his hands, which seemed to have had enough at this rude treatment and decided to turn off.

"Well, if he's a thief, he's not a very good one at that" snickered Mikey. "I mean he is making more noise than Raph in the shower!"

"Mikey, I swear to God, if ya' don't shut the shell up, I'm gonna use YOU as a punching bag tonight!"

Before Raph could move from mere threats into action however, the turtles' attention was drawn again towards the UN building, where they could see a set of lights lighting up in what seemed to be a hallway leading to the room where the thief was still looking for his flashlight in the dark.

"Looks like we were not the only ones who had heard him" Leonardo stated. Indeed, they could see a couple of figures moving down the hallway. Apparently, the thief also heard them, as he stopped looking for the flashlight, searching in panic for a way out. "The only exit is through the door that leads to that corridor. He's trapped. Come on guys, we are not needed here, Security has it under control". Leo, Raph, and Don turned to head for home, when Mikey's loud gasp made them stop in their tracks.

"This dude is crazy!"

Indeed, the "dude", finding no other means to escape, was standing in the window contemplating the ground below him, whilst visibly struggling to decide between possibly breaking his neck and being caught. Finally, he must have opted for the former, as he turned around, crouched, held on to the ledge of the window, and slowly lowered himself. He stayed there for a couple of minutes, his body swaying in the wind, his hands holding on tightly to the window ledge, apparently struggling with himself on whether to let go.

"Not only clumsy but a coward too" Raph scoffed. "Ain't a Foot, that's fo' sure! Prob'ly some petty thief… not worth our time".

At that moment, the guards made their way into the room, and drew their weapons as they noticed the criminal who was still hanging from the window. This seemed to be the last push that the thief needed, as he released his grip from the window ledge in panic, and fell three stories, hitting the ground with a loud THUD.

"OUCH!" winced the four turtles in unison. They stared at the limp body that lay on the floor with a bit of concern. After all, he was clumsy, he was cowardly, and most importantly, he was a criminal, but still; he was a human being.

The guards leaned out of the window to see what had been of the suicidal criminal. Seeing him motionless on the floor, they said something indiscernible into their walky-talkies, before moving away from the window, making their way down the hall they came from. At this moment, the man on the floor suddenly got up, and bolted towards the dark alleys, limping slightly, but fast enough to be out of sight within the minute.

"What now, Fearless?" Raph asked, ready to start a chase that he knew would be too easy, but would still give him _some_ butt-kickin' satisfaction.

"Let's get him. He may be a petty thief, but this was the United Nations building. We need to see what he was after". At that Raph's face lit up with an evil smile, and he leaped off the roof before any of his brothers even had time to react.

"Poor clumsy bastard" muttered Mikey, knowing what his hotheaded brother would do to the thief on the run, seeing that he was the first (and only) criminal he could get his hands on that night. "Then again, better him than me" he added, knowing that when Raph couldn't fight off the tension built up inside him, he was more likely to beat up his baby brother for his pranks.


	2. Chase

Chapter 2:

_**Here comes chapter 2! I actually wrote this up yesterday, but as Murphy's Law says, the website happened to go coo-coo just as I finished, so I was unable to log in the entire afternoon! No worries, there's always another day, and so now, the story continues...**_

_**A special thanks to Eridani23, my first reviewer…EVER! Writing a fanfic (especially your first one) can induce a nasty case of timidity, so thank you so much for vote of confidence! :)**_

**Chapter 2:**** Chase**

Mikey caught up with his three brothers, who were hiding in the shadows of a rooftop, from where they could see with ease the scene unfolding in the dark alleyway below them. From here, they could finally take a better look at the inept thief… or what could be seen of him. In fact, the four turtles were quite surprised to see that the criminal was a rather small man, about 5'2" or 5'3", skinny, and dressed entirely in black, with the hood of his jumper covering his entire face from anyone to see. Nonetheless, the turtles were even _more_ surprised to see that the man was not alone, but was surrounded by… well, Foot ninjas.

"Man, the Shredder must be in deep shit if the criminals working for him aren't even meeting the _Dragons'_ standards!" Mikey quietly whistled.

"Who cares?" groaned Raph with a satisfied smile "At least the Foot'll put up a _somewhat_ decent fight! Looks like this night was not a waste of time after all!" and with that, he drew his sais and leaped from the rooftop right behind the crowd of Foot. The initial surprise of the ninjas did not last long, before they threw themselves as one at the turtle.

"Well, I guess Raph has the right idea this time" grinned Mikey, before drawing his nunchacks and throwing himself into the fight with a "Cowabunga!" Don and Leo rolled their eyes before following their two brothers who were already throwing Foot ninjas left and right, and seemingly enjoying the excitement very much.

Leo was a bit torn by the way his brothers (and oh yeah, him too) were enjoying the fight, as Master Splinter had always taught them that violence will not solve anything, and that fighting should be only used as a last resort. Then again, this _had_ been a very slow week, and he knew that as regular teenagers, if they could not vent by beating up bad guys, they would end up fighting amongst themselves more often, something that started to even drive Splinter up the wall.

Don looked at Leo while connecting his bo staff with the stomach of a Foot, and lifting him above his head and throwing him toward the other end of the alley. "I feel kinda guilty enjoying this so much" he grinned at him almost as if he would have guessed Leo's thoughts, "but they're the Foot" he shrugged. Leo understood what he meant. _Any _chance to get back at the Shredder for what he had done to them in the past made them feel a weird sense of satisfaction inside. Revenge was sweet.

Leo kicked another Foot in the stomach, sending him flying through the alley towards the opposite wall, before turning around and realizing that the fight was over. He put away his katanas while looking around, seeing some ninjas lying around them defeated and unconscious, whilst the rest of them had all fled.

"Now _that's_ what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Raph growled victoriously, putting his sais back into his belt.

Donny however was still looking around with a frown on his face. "Wait a sec, has anyone seen our little friend from the UN building?"

"We got to find him" Leo said darkly. "If the Shredder is involved in some scheme involving the United Nations, we need to stop him".

"I'll get him" Raph said with a smug expression playing on his face. "I think I saw him go this way. He couldn't have gotten too… AACK!" His words were suddenly interrupted as a wooden plank connected with his beak, sending him flat on his shell. The thief in black, who was the one holding the board, jumped out from behind the container where he was hiding, fleeing at an incredible speed, quickly turning a corner and fading out of the sight of the turtles.

"Raph, are you okay?" Donnie asked half worried, half trying to suppress his laughter at the sight of his brother's tough-guy act being so suddenly cut off by the small and inept man they were after.

"What the fuck?! I think 'e broke' my nose!" Raph cried in anger, holding his beak with his two hands.

Mikey was laughing so hard he was tearing up "He can't break your nose cuz you ain't got one, bro!"

"Just wait 'till I get my hands on that little…" Raph muttered with rage, as he drew his sais and ran in the direction that he saw the little man disappear.

"I guess we better follow him" Leo said. The turtles ran behind their enraged brother. The four turned the corner and quickly realized that they have reached Third Avenue. The street was covered in a deep darkness, which was occasionally interrupted by a couple of street lights. And it was all quiet. Quiet as the grave.

"Where'd he go?!" growled Raph, looking up and down the street but seeing no one.

As they were standing there, they suddenly noticed a set of lights turn on to their right, followed by a loud grumbling noise, before they realized the blur of yellow and black that sped by them at 50mph.

"He's trying to get away! And on a fuckin' motorcycle!" Raph was beginning to think that the small man was not as incompetent after all… But he was determined to pay back the favour that left his beak still throbbing with hurt. The four turtles made a chase for it, but a motorcycle proved to be way faster than any amount of ninjitsu speed.

"We're loosing him, dudes!"

"No problem" grinned Don, as the Battle Shell pulled up, guided by the remote control that Donnie was quick to activate once he saw that their opponent biked up. Raph, blinded by the anger that was being fed by his wounded beak, not to mention his wounded ego, got on the Shell Cycle and sped away before his brothers even had time to pile in the Battle Shell and follow the turtle that was now almost glowing in red from rage.

Raph quickly spotted the man on the yellow motorcycle, turning north on Park, seemingly heading towards Interstate 87. "Oh no ya don't!" Raph groaned under his breath, speeding at a dangerous pace, his three brothers barely keeping up with the van. As Raph was getting closer by the minute, the man on the motorcycle realized that he was now part of a vehicle chase. He turned his head to get a better view at the racing turtle, when suddenly a large truck appeared out of nowhere in front of him, entirely blocking the road. Raph saw that the man was too late to see the roadblock in front of him, and with a high-pitched shriek he lost control over the motorcycle, dropping on the ground and sliding uncontrollably towards the large vehicle.

Raph winced seeing the man come dangerously close to hitting the tires of the truck, missing it by a couple of inches, sliding under it, and continuing to skate down the road until it slowed down and stopped, a good hundred feet from the lorry.

At that moment, the Battle Shell pulled up next to Raph who skidded to a stop before coming to the same fate as the man on the yellow motorcycle.

"Whoa, is he like, okay?" Mikey jumped out of the van followed by his two older brothers.

Raph, who had suddenly forgotten all his anger, was now looking in surprise at the marks that the other motorcycle left on the street. "Only one way to find out" he said darkly, jumping over the truck in front of him, and approaching the limp body under the bike, followed by the other three turtles.

As they moved towards the person on the floor, they saw that, miraculously, he was alive and moving, helmet still on his head, trying to push the motorcycle off that was on top of his right leg, pinning him on to the ground.

"Well, well, well, now who do we have here?" Raph asked with an eerie tone, placing his right foot on the bike that the man was still struggling to push off of him. The four turtles stood around the man who stopped scrambling. With a swift move, Leo yanked the helmet off, to reveal the angry face of… a GIRL?!


	3. Murder

"Get off of me you ugly scum

_**Some disclaimers (some that I should have mentioned earlier): I do not own the United Nations (if I did, there would be World Peace right now :)) or UNHCR, or any of the organizations mentioned below.**_

_**However, Maranoza, the Guarajos, Mr. Salvatierra, and all other characters mentioned are product of my imagination… it was the easiest way to not offend anyone, rather than using real-life countries, places, and people. **_

_**And another thing. I got up **__**close and personal with a friend's turtle yesterday, and decided that in real life they're not as attractive as our Ninjas are. They're cute, but not exactly attractive (there was a lot of skin hanging). Anyways, I just thought I'd mention that.**_

_**Now, on with the story!**_

**Chapter 3: Murder**

"Get off of me, you ugly SCUM!"

Raph narrowed his eyes. Did she just call him _scum_?! SHE called HIM scum?? Raphael grabbed the girl by her collar, pulled her from under the bike, and lifted her up, her legs hanging in the air, her face inches from his.

"WHAT did ya just call me??"

"Dude, don't take it to heart, she's got a point… you _do_ have a pretty ugly face!"

"Mikey, NOT now…" Mikey quickly shut his beak and sought refuge behind one of his brothers.

Raph refocused his attention on the girl, who met his gaze without a blink. You gotta give it to her, she was brave, facing a giant AND angered turtle like that.

"You wanna piece of me? Just try me and I'll kick your overgrown green…"

Okay, so she was real annoying too.

"Now listen here, _kid_, I know you're a girl but if ya don't shut tha hell up I SWEAR I'm gonna…"

"WHAT? You're gonna kill me too? I KNOW what you're up to and you're not gonna get away with it! I've got evidence to bring you and your boss down!"

All four turtles blinked in surprise. What the _shell _was she talking about?? This wasn't right… somebody should tell her that they were the _good-guys_!

"Umm, let's start over, shall we? I think we got off on the wrong foot here" Donny stepped in, trying to clear up the situation. "Raph, put her down" he demanded.

Raph sneered and let her go. He did not actually _put her down_, as Don told him to, but in fact just released his grip, which caused her to stumble back as she hit the ground, trip in the motorcycle still lying behind her, and fall flat on her ass.

"Raph!" Donny looked at him disapprovingly with a that-was-completely-unnecessary frown, then stepped in front of the girl and offered her a hand.

"I'm sorry about my brother he can be a bit… Neanderthal-like." She eyed his three-fingered hand with an expression of surprise at first, which quickly changed to suspicion mixed with fear.

"You don't have to be afraid, we won't hurt you" Don flashed her a smile. "My name is Donatello. These are my brothers: Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael." Leonardo nodded his head slightly, standing with his arms crossed, still not being able to make up his mind about whether she was a threat to his family or not. Raphael grunted, which was as good a greeting as she could expect. Mikey, on the other hand, grinned widely and waved his hand "What's up, dudette?"

The girl finally grabbed Don's hand. "I'm Stephanie… Steph" she said, as she rubbed her sore behind.

"Nice to meet you, Steph" Donny showed her his most dazzling smile, whilst Raph grumbled something about the two of them needing to get a room.

Steph was still eyeing the four turtles with suspicion, although now she was more curious about the creatures in front of her. "So…uh… I don't mean to be rude or anything but… what's up with the green monkey-suits?"

"We're Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!" Mikey declared sounding a bit offended. "You see, long ago when we were baby turtles, we crashed into the sewers, where this green gooey ooze thingy turned us into MUTANTS!" Mikey was talking louder and louder, illustrating his story with abrupt hand gestures. "Our Master Splinter, who I forgot to mention is our father, and a rat, and our ninja master, and he was mutated too, anyways, Master Splinter taught us ninjutsu, and that's how we became NINJAS! And... uh… the teenage part is pretty self explanatory. So you see, we are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!" The other three turtles rolled their eyes, wondering how anyone could EVER understand their life story from Mikey's confusing explanation.

However, Michelangelo's story-telling techniques did seem to agree with Stephanie. "Ah, I see… well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they DID warn me that _anything _can happen in New York. I guess that includes giant…green…mutant…turtles" she muttered to herself.

"Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles" Mikey repeated for the third time, as if trying to explain the concept to a rather thick-headed person. "So… you're not afraid of us?"

"Umm… I guess you haven't tried to kill me…yet. And besides" she allowed a half-smile for the first time "you look kinda… cute." She grinned even more widely, as she noticed Mike's green cheeks turn slightly reddish. "Right, well I guess I better be going" she said, eyeing the sky where the first rays of the morning were slowly shining through the night.

"No way, yer not going ANYWHERE 'till we get some answers!" So far Raph had been quite patiently waiting for the introductions to be over. Although patience was not one of his strengths, as a mutant turtle he knew that the first time they encounter a human, he would have to exercise this virtue until the said human would understand that they mean no harm to him or her. However, now that the introductions were over, there was no way he would let her go without getting some answers.

"Look, Raphael, is it? This is none of your concern, I am sorry I hit you earlier, but I thought you were after me, like _them_."

"Who were after you?" Leo asked.

"I told you, this doesn't concern you, You'll just get into more trouble" Steph insisted, but she slowly began to realize that it wouldn't be too easy to get rid of four giant ninja turtles.

"The HELL it doesn't" Raph grunted. "If yer break into the UN building in the middle of the night, it IS our concern!"

"Break in? Are you kidding? I WORK there!"

All four turtles' jaws dropped as they were dumbfounded yet another time that night.

"You… you what?"

Steph could see from the look of the turtles' faces that she would have no choice. "Fine. I'll explain everything, but not here. Let's go back to my apartment and I'll tell you everything I know."

Stephanie opened the door to the small apartment located in a dark area in East Harlem. To say that the apartment was small was an understatement; if the apartment had been any smaller, the sofa would have been in the shower. The place was made up of one room that served jointly as kitchen/dining room/living room, with a small bathroom in the back. The 'bedroom' consisted of a bed placed on a small loft above.

"I know it's small but it looks a lot bigger when it's not filled up by four giant turtles" she smiled.

"Ugh, it's nice" Donny said politely.

"Yeah, but couldn't you have found someplace less… shady?" Leo asked, knowing from their nights patrolling the city that this was the neighbourhood where the crime rate was at its highest.

"Nah, I'm cool. Besides, this is the Spanish Harlem, and I speak the language fluently, so I can pass as part of the 'hood." She sighed. "Actually that's part of my story." She took a seat in the sofa next to Donny, whilst the other turtles tried to find a place to get comfortable in the small apartment.

"My father was a businessman at a company with ties in South America. We constantly moved from one country to another because of his job, and so I grew up in different places in Latin-America. That's how I learnt to speak Spanish almost as if it was my mother-tongue. But I also attended American schools, and when I graduated, I came to the States to uni. I recently finished my degree, and got an internship with the United Nations for a year in New York. The pay isn't great, which is why I can only afford a place like this, but I like the job, and I usually spend my entire day working, and only come home to sleep."

"So, you were just working late tonight?"

"Not exactly, Mikey" Stephanie blushed slightly. "You see, I was kinda snooping around, at an area where I wasn't supposed to be. But I'll start at the beginning. I was assigned to work with the section that coordinated the work of the UNHCR, the United Nations' office that works with refugees. However, about a month ago, me and some other interns were given a special task of helping out with the preparations for a conference that aims to solve the situation between the Guarajos and the government of Maramoza."

"The Mara…what?"

"Maramoza is a small country between Brazil and Peru, Mikey" Don quickly explained in a teacher-like tone. "The Guarajos are a small group of ethnic minority, descendants of the Incas, who for decades have been organizing guerrilla attacks against the government of Maramoza in an attempt to secede from the country and create their own. Both sides have been very adamant about the issue. The Maramozian Prime Minister, Carlos Puelles, has declared that the Guarajos could never create their own country, as there are only a handful of them, and thus they would be unable to subsist politically and economically. Of course, the _real _reason is that he doesn't want to loose the massive gold mines that can be found on Guraja territory."

"That' right" Steph jumped in. "Puelles is willing to compromise with the Guarajas by giving them their own small province. However, the Guaraja resistance, called _El Movimiento para la Liberación Guaraja_, or MLG, is not willing to give up their dreams of complete secession from Maramoza."

"Very nice story but what's it gotta do with us?" Raph was getting impatient… for a change.

"I'm getting there, Raph. So a couple of months ago, the extremist leader if the Guarajas has had a major heart attack, and has been pretty much out cold since. His son has taken over, a reformist who is said to be a lot more reasonable than his father. He has agreed to meet Puelles to figure out a solution that would suit both parties. However, neither of them wants to go to the other one's territory, for fear of an ambush. Therefore, the meeting will be held here, at the United Nations building in New York, because it's international territory."

"Right. But what's it gotta do with ya?"

"Well, as I said, me and a couple of other interns were assigned to help in the preparations for this conference. There is relatively little time, and they needed all the help they could get. So there we worked closely with a couple of high officials, including the UN Ambassador for Maramoza, José Migue Salvatierra."

"Wait, isn't he the guy who was found dead last week? Something about jumping out of his office?"

Steph looked at Leo in surprise. "Wow, you turtles read the newspapers? And yeah, the official investigation has declared it suicide."

"So?"

"Well, _I_ think he was _murdered_… by someone I know."


End file.
